I’m trying to catch up so I will talk about Milford Haven and Liverpool in this blog entry.

Wednesday 7 August 2013
Milford Haven, Wales

We drop anchor on the south side of Milford Haven harbor around 7:30am.  After an excellent room-service breakfast, I go through UK immigration and hand in my passport, which will be returned next week after we depart from Plymouth.  I am on a shore excursion today; tender-loading goes quickly and the coach is off to the ruins of Carew Castle and the seaside town of Tenby, both in South Pembrokeshire, Wales.

The ruins of Carew Castle are pretty much what you might expect from a place that has seen constant warfare—with the Normans, the British and the French—over a period of 1500 years.  The place is very evocative of another time and it contrasts with the castles that have been fully restored.  There are constant disagreements about whether to restore or leave these places as they are, and the argument will probably never be resolved. 

 

The weather is lovely and it is a short drive from here to Tenby, a seaside resort that began as a religious settlement in the Middle Ages, but became fashionable in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Today is a market and a fair day so the town is crowded with locals and tourists, creative a festive atmosphere. One section of town sits behind the remaining parts of the town walls: narrow streets, cobblestones, shops, pubs, and restaurants. Another part of the town looks out over the water. There is a good swimmer’s beach and, since it is currently low tide, lots of fishing boats sitting on damp soil until the next tide comes in.

 

 

The coach brings us back to the ship in time for Welsh Cookies on the pier, a light lunch, and high tea in the dining room (becoming a habit)—today I do have scones with jam and clotted cream, along with the sandwiches and pastry.  I have my hair cut in the ship’s salon ($15. after my loyalty discount) and come back to my clean laundry returned to my stateroom (I have an unlimited laundry package for 14 days for $98.—pretty good deal; I wish I had something like that at home).

 

 

 

 

You are probably getting bored with my discussions of food so I will leave off for a while, with just a brief report that the Wiener Schnitzel tonight is excellent.

Thursday 8 August 2013

Liverpool, UK

Today is the highlight of the trip so far.  Dirty, industrial Liverpool has been transformed into a vibrant city with a magnificently restored Mersey Riverfront (remember “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” Jerry and the Pacemakers, circa1965?).  I stopped here briefly in 1969 on my way to catch the overnight ferry to Dublin and remember spending a rainy afternoon at the movies (don’t ask what the movie was, even I can’t remember that).

Docking has been delayed one hour because of the tides.  The Mersey has one of the largest tide differentials in the world (the difference between low and high tides), and ships are at the mercy of nature when sailing these waters.  But everything on today’s schedule—tours and evening departure from Liverpool—are put off an hour as well.  I have a 3½-hour morning tour of the city, so it’s breakfast in my stateroom again, before heading off the gangway onto the floating pier.  The pier allows large cruise ships, including the QM2, to dock in the city center, and Liverpool is starting to rival Southampton as a destination for transatlantic passages.  The coach tour gives a good introduction to the various parts of the city, stopping at St George’s Hall in the center of town; the recently completed very modern RC Metropolitan Cathedral; the suburbs associated with the Beatles (“Penny Lane”); and the huge Anglican Cathedral, also recently completed but begun 150 years ago.

 

 

 

 












The bus drops us at Albert Dock, the huge riverfront restoration project, actually only a short walk from the ship.  In addition to apartments and condos, there are a large number of shops and restaurants, as well as several fine museums—all free to the public:  the Tate Liverpool, the Maritime Museum, the Museum of Slavery, and the new Liverpool City Museum.  I have energy only for the first two on that list, because I also want to explore the Victorian architectural gems lined up across the street, and get back to the shopping areas in the center of the city.

The Three Graces—the Liverpool Ports Building, the Cunard Building, and the Liverpool Assurance Society Building—are lined up across the street from the docks.  Bastions of the cultural and economic standards of the 19^th century, they have been elegantly cleaned and restored.  The Liver Bird (pronounced as in “alive”), one of the symbols of the city, stands perched atop the Assurance Society.  From a later date, the still-elegant art deco ventilation tower for the Mersey River Vehicular Tunnel completes the picture.  Just a few blocks away the pedestrianized shopping streets and a three-level inner-city mall, Liverpool One, await the intrepid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been another beautiful day and it ends perfectly as we sail for Dublin at 8:30pm.  The sun doesn’t go down until 10pm so there is beautiful fading light as I stand on the Promenade Deck after a dinner highlighted by Chicken Kiev.

We are scheduled to reach Dublin early tomorrow and have two full days to enjoy.